Home Song by Lavyrle Spencer Read Free Book Online

and opened the driver’s door, he glanced back up to see she had already closed the door and returned inside.
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    He was too agitated to go straight home. Instead, he drove over to school and parked close to the front door, where a small metal sign said MR . GARDNER . Football practice had ended at 5:30, and the afternoon activities bus had already left the grounds. He wondered if Robby had been forced to ride it. Since buying the car for the kids, Tom and Claire had been amused at how put-upon they acted when forced to ride a bus as they’d done for years.
    The main front doors were unlocked. As he stepped through, they closed behind him with their familiar hiss and clack. Inside, the building smelled of fresh paint, reminding him of how little attention he’d paid today to the affairs of a school year that would officially begin next Tuesday. Somewhere in the distance the custodians—Tom’s greatest blessing—were still painting the halls and would work uncomplainingly till eleven or midnight, as they would do every day from now through Labor Day. One of them was whistling “You Light Up My Life.” It echoed through the halls and brought a curiously calming effect to Tom.
    He took out his key and unlocked the plate-glass doors to the deserted main office. Inside, it was blissfully quiet. The secretaries were gone. The phones were still. All the lightswere off but the usual one, in the far corner. The walls were spotless and a lot of the boxes gone. Someone had even vacuumed the hard-surfaced blue carpeting.
    In his office he snapped on the ceiling lights, laid Kent Arens’s registration card on his desk, and dialed the athletic office.
    The coach picked up and said, “Yuh. Gorman here.”
    â€œBob, it’s Tom Gardner. What’d you think of the new kid?”
    â€œAre you kidding?” Tom heard the twang of Gorman’s desk chair as he tilted it back. “He makes me ask myself what I’m doing wrong with my own.”
    â€œYou questioned him?”
    â€œOf course I questioned him. The kid’s got his head on so straight I almost wanted to hear something foolish come out of his mouth just so I’d know he was for real.”
    â€œCan he play?”
    â€œCan he play ? Boy , can he play!”
    â€œSo he’s on the team?”
    â€œNot only on it, I have the feeling he could be the spark that makes it happen for us this year. He knows how to follow orders, how to handle a ball and avoid tacklers. He’s a real team man, plus he’s in great shape. I’m glad you had the good sense to bring him down to talk to me.”
    â€œWell, that’s good news. A boy like that with college goals and plenty of gray matter between his ears, he’s the kind that makes our whole school system look good. I’m glad you put him on the team. Thanks.”
    â€œI’m glad you brought him down, Tom.”
    After he’d hung up, Tom sat at his desk, wondering what would happen during this school year, what changes his life would undergo because of all he’d learned today.
    He had another son. A smart, athletic, bright, polite,seemingly happy seventeen-year-old son. What a discovery to make at mid-life.
    The phone rang and he jumped guiltily, as if the caller could divine his thoughts.
    It was Claire. “Hi, Tom. Coming home for supper?”
    He forced brightness into his voice. “Yup. I’ll head out now. Did you pick up Robby?”
    â€œHe caught a ride home with Jeff.” Jeff Morehouse was Robby’s best friend and a fellow football player.
    â€œOkay. I told him I wouldn’t be around when practice ended but it turns out I had to stop back at school anyway. See you in a few minutes.”
    On his way out of the office, Tom left Kent Arens’s green registration card on Dora Mae’s desk for filing.
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    Tom and Claire Gardner lived in the same two-story colonial they’d bought when the children